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On October 4, Trinity Christian College’s annual Jubilation! fundraiser also served as a dedication service for the newly completed and recently renamed DeVos Athletics and Recreation Center (previously the Trinity Athletics and Recreation Complex). A special chapel service during the afternoon began the day of dedication celebration that was followed by Homecoming on Saturday.

The name of the center honors the generous support provided by Richard and Helen DeVos. Through their Foundation, Richard and Helen seek to donate based on their Christian faith and their responsibility as stewards of the financial resources God has given them.

Phase I began in June 2010 and included the construction of a spectacular new competition gymnasium, a human performance lab, a training room, locker rooms, classrooms, and offices for the athletics department. Phase II, completed in May 2013, involved remodeling of the original Mitchell Memorial Gymnasium into a sleek and beautiful new space for practice, fitness, and learning.

In addition to serving as a facility for educating students in the majors and pre-professional programs offered in physical education, exercise science, sport and exercise studies, and pre-physical therapy, the center also provides vital space for the intramural and intercollegiate programs.

Recognizing project planning and work

Many have given generously of their time and financial resources to take Phase 1 and 2 of the DeVos Athletics and Recreation Center from vision to reality over the course of the past three years. At the event, the College specifically recognized Dr. George Vander Velde ’63, now retired vice president for campus development, for his guiding involvement in the visioning, planning, and construction of the center.

Also recognized were A.M.D.G. and Rockford Construction, both based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A.M.D.G., an architectural design firm, worked with the College to create a space that integrated sports, fitness, and health with Christian education and community. Trinity selected Rockford as construction manager for both phases of the project.

Recognizing service here and abroad

The event also serves to highlight the work of alumni and friends of the College who are making a difference in their communities. The Global Service Award and the Community Service Award were presented as well. The recipients of the Global Service Award were Drs. Steve and Barbara Timmermans. Peter and Heidi Huizenga were honored with the Community Service Award.

Global Service Award

While rooted in their campus responsibilities as president and nursing professor, respectively, Steve and Barbara’s service has extended far beyond the campus. They have represented Trinity by developing partnerships with and hosting partners from faith-based universities and ministries in Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe, which has brought international students to Trinity and has given Trinity students opportunities to study in those countries. The very make-up of their family, with the adoption of Ethiopian brothers Fekadu and Getenet, stands as a personal testimony to their love for God’s greater world and its people.

Community Service Award

Peter and Heidi Huizenga’s vision for Trinity’s campus community has led to their support of improved athletic facilities at Trinity, most notably the Huizenga Fitness Center. Heidi served two terms as an active member of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, including her faithful service on the Executive Committee as vice-chair of the Board and chair of the Marketing, Admissions, and Student Development Committee. The Huizengas have also held various leadership positions with Christian educational institutions, ministries, and foundations such as Elim Christian Services and Timothy Christian Schools.

During the evening, Jubilation! guests also enjoyed the second year of a successful silent auction, which generated much interest and fundraising activity.

The Apollo Chorus, the premier volunteer chorus of the Chicagoland area, performed at Trinity’s Ozinga Chapel on Monday, October 14, as part of Trinity’s 2013 WorldView Series. The group of more than 115 members performed for an audience of nearly 700 Trinity students, faculty, staff, and community members.

The audience enjoyed several pieces based on poetry and selections from the Messiah. In a look forward to its spring concert, the chorus sang an all-voice version of “Eleanor Ribgy” by the Beatles.

About the choir

The Apollo Chorus is rooted in bringing people together. In the Great Chicago Fire, many ethno-specific choruses lost their practice halls. The Apollo Chorus welcomed singers from a variety of religions, creeds, and occupations, and they still value that diversity today. 

The Apollo Chorus has sung Handel’s Messiah every year at Christmas time since 1879. Their dedication to producing high-quality performances has earned them the honor of being featured in several television recordings and live performance collaborations.

Reverend Brenda Girton-Mitchell, J.D., director of the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education, discussed the importance of service, at her WorldView presentation on October 21.

Girton-Mitchell provides leadership to help meet the goal of engaging community-based organizations, both faith-based and secular in building a culture of high expectations and support for education. She also works as part of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships to implement its mission in cooperation with the Centers for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at 12 other federal agencies.

Trinity’s participation in the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge is part of that collaborative initiative. For more than two years, Trinity students and students from local Muslim faith communities have worked side by side on improvements to the Cal Sag Trail.

“In the act of working together, you build relationships you may never have built because you find a common denominator,” said Girton-Mitchell.

She explained that in the first two years of the challenge, campuses reported that over 100,000 students and 250,000 staff, faculty, and community members participated in interfaith service initiatives. The work of Trinity students was part of the more than 152 million hours reported.

“Trinity is like a tree trunk,” said Girton-Mitchell, “and others are like branches helping to serve the community.”

This fall Trinity gains two new admissions counselors to help overseas students and students who are transferring from other in-state colleges.

Maribeth Voss serves as Trinity’s international admissions counselor, a position that was created this fall, while alumna Gina Ciametti ’13 serves as the transfer counselor.

Voss returns to the Chicago area after eight years of being a missionary teacher in Hakodate, Japan. She will work with faculty and student development staff on campus to ensure a smooth academic and cultural transition for international students once they are admitted.

Of her goals for this position, Voss said, “I intend to increase Trinity’s visibility and to communicate its faith-based mission to an even wider and more diverse group of students. I hope this will be reflected not only in an increased number of international students on Trinity’s campus, but also in the heightened dialogue and cultural awareness that diversity brings across the entire Trinity community.”

Compared with living in Japan, Voss will now be very close to her parents. Andy Voss manages the science labs at Trinity’s Heritage Science Center, and Jane Voss is the program manager of Trinity’s Church Connection Initiative. 

Ciametti graduated from Trinity with a B.A. in Communication Arts: Theater. She rejoins life at Trinity after attending the Chicago Semester last spring. While a student, Ciametti stayed very involved with campus life and now looks forward to ushering in new students to an experience she hopes they enjoy as much as she did.

Ciametti will serve transfer students by working closely with two-year colleges to alert them of Trinity’s programs and opportunities, meeting individually with possible transfer students and updating Trinity’s online transfer guides to make it clearer which classes transfer from which schools. Her hope is that these guides will be a valuable aid for prospective transfer students.

“Since I’ve been a student at Trinity, I can offer prospective students a glimpse into what it is like to live and learn at Trinity,” Ciametti said.  

U.S.News & World Report’s 2014 “Best Colleges” list ranked Trinity 28^th among the 367 Regional Colleges—Midwest. The U.S. News list considers several criteria, including peer assessment, graduation and freshmen retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving.

Trinity also ranked 8th in Campus Ethnic Diversity: Regional Colleges—Midwest. This ranking speaks to the College’s continued commitment to develop a multi-racial, multi-national, and multi-denominational student body.

Trinity stands among other institutions in the Regional Colleges category that offer a wide range of degree programs in the liberal arts and in fields such as business, education, and nursing.

Other recent rankings include:

• A rank of 48 among the nation’s top colleges in the 2013 Baccalaureate College Ranking from Washington Monthly.
• 2013 Best Bang for the Buck Ranking from Washington Monthly’s  list of 48 baccalaureate colleges in America that do the best job of helping students of modest means attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.
• No. 2 rank in value among Illinois colleges and No. 103 (out of 1,288) in Best Nationwide Colleges for the Money, according to CollegeFactual.com.
• A place on the Victory Media 2014 Military Friendly Schools list.

It is the same nearly every day.

Dr. Brad Breems, professor of sociology, walks along the Trinity Trail that winds through trees and brush and along the creek. The walk is no mere respite from classes or sociological research, but something more intentional.

At different points, he faces each cardinal direction, beginning with the East—where the sun rises—and his Adoration of God. This ritual prayer continues with Confession (North), Thanks (West), and Supplication (South). Although the thoughts, words, and even the setting are fluid, the pattern never changes.

Patterns, especially in societal structures, are an aspect of culture that Breems, who will retire at the close of the academic year, has studied for many years and in many places. Teaching at Trinity since 1988, he emphasizes a Christian perspective on sociology and asserts that the discipline provides people with a deeper understanding of humanity’s relationship with God—a God of order and structure who desires harmony with a disharmonious people.

As a professor, Breems notes that students function differently within the classroom structure. He explains to his students the importance of structures, such as those in government or in a campus community, and how they relate to freedom and personal choices.

In that classroom setting, he also shares with his students what he has learned through his research and travels. That research has focused on the relations among God, God’s Law-Word, normative principles, and human structural responses; the nature of ethnicity; urban development patterns, particularly the relation between industrial manufacturing and regional and neighborhood prosperity and stability; and the formation and effects of social structure. The latter was conducted primarily in South Africa, a place where Breems said “a highly industrially developed culture and more traditional cultures mingle.”

In his personal life, Breems said patterns, such as “keeping Sunday as a day for worship and family dinners,” must be carved out in the context of contemporary culture. He intentionally practices meditation and prayer, disciplines he says are crucial to his personal well-being. Trinity has been a blessing in that respect, providing a special place along the creek on the Trinity Trail for regular meditation and close contact with elements of creation.

“I do it to find solitude and traces of a less constructed creation. I also do it for privacy and for contact with weather, ecology, and beauty of the area,” said Breems. “It allows me to do a structured-yet-flexible combination of analytic thought, mediation, renewal, and affirmation of belief and knowledge, and openness to God, prayer, confession, thanksgiving, praise, and personal centering.”

This year, Breems was the recipient of the Professor of the Year award. The award recognizes the achievements of a distinguished professor who has shown excellence in teaching or scholarship. The faculty development committee chooses from nominations submitted by students, faculty, and staff. The inaugural award was presented in 2012 to Dr. Robert Rice, professor of history.

In the spring semester, Breems will be on a final sabbatical and retire at the end of the 2013-14 academic year to spend more time with his wife Helen, his children, and grandchildren, and to continue his research and writing.

In His Own Words

You are often seen cycling to campus. Is it simply a form of exercise or do you use it as an exercise in meditation, preparation for class, etc.?

“[Cycling] remains my most common way and preferred way to commute. I have a relatively short ride. It’s 6 miles to Blue Island but, with a few avoidances of busiest thoroughfare stretches, my route is almost 7 miles. I do it for all the reasons most people do: exercise, saving fuel and reducing pollution, directly experiencing the weather, trying to encourage others to enjoy this way of living.

Do you have items that you would call symbols of your profession or yourself as a person?

“I like to sometimes effect the dress of the professoriate, although there is no standard for such. I try to buy the woolen coats with patched arms that hark back to a late stage of the … dark university buildings and a time that kept profs–so poor that they had to keep them until the elbows wore out and needed a leather patch–warm in still-unheated and drafty halls. I firmly believe that also today everyone should wear warm enough clothes in winter to allow us to turn down the building heat 20 degrees. The hand-rubbing would also keep some of us awake and our laptops cooler.

“As a nod to noble tradition, I also cherish my dear leather bag, for which some steer lent me his hide, on which I have sat and slept and in which the most precious tools of my trade–paper, books, pens, and toothbrush—dangle across my back and under my arm. If I don’t lose it–as I once did, only to be returned by an angel–it will likely outlast my own skin.”

Do you like the idea of retirement?

“Yes, I spend so much time at my office that it limits time with Helen and the rest of my family. I hope to make up lost time and to enrich my relations with family, fellow worshippers at church, and community events. In addition, I will continue my research and writing. Since my formal academic connection ends with a sabbatical, I will enter retirement with the completion of analysis and publishing of my research from South Africa and my interest in the effects of globalization in general.”

Actor Tom Key starred in a unique one-man play, “Screwtape in Person,” in the Marg Kallemeyn Theatre on Monday, October 7, as a part of Trinity’s WorldView Series. Key’s performance brought C.S. Lewis’s book, The Screwtape Letters, to life, giving audience members a look at humanity from the perspective of hell.

In covering Lewis’ work, Key used various dialects and mannerisms to portray the characters, bringing each to life for the audience whether or not they were familiar with the famous story. This was Key’s second performance at Trinity. As part of the 2010 WorldView Series, Key performed “C.S. Lewis on Stage.”

WorldView is an annual community and college series for film, word, and music, held on Mondays in October at 7 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Beth Decker at 708.293.4908.

About Tom Key

Key began serving as executive artistic director of Theatrical Outfit in 1995. He may be best known for conceiving and co-authoring the off-Broadway hit, “Cotton Patch Gospel” with the late singer-songwriter, Harry Chapin.  

His performances take him across the United States and around the world. His appearances include “C.S. Lewis On Stage” and “The Revelation of John” at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lambs Theater off Broadway, The Westwood Playhouse of Los Angeles, Dallas Theater Center, Oxford University, England, Harvard and Yale Universities.

Key has also had featured appearances on numerous television films including the award winning television series “In the Heat of the Night” and “I’ll Fly Away” and the feature films “Gordy” and “The Adventures of Ociee Nash.”

The Chicago Fire’s Faith and Family Night is an annual event that draws members of the Trinity community up from Palos Heights to Toyota Park, the Chicago Fire stadium. This year students got a sneak peek at the testimony that would be shared after the game on September 14 when midfielder Wells Thompson visited campus during dinner hours to mingle with students.

Trinity’s group of tailgaters began the main event with pizza and soda, then enjoyed an exciting 3 to 2 win by Chicago over the New England Revolution, and listened to Thompson and Fire Captain Logan Pause share their testimonies.  

Sophomore Brendon De Boer of Sanborn, Iowa, said, “It was great to hear the testimonies of people who don’t work in a Christian environment, but still show their faith in everyday life.” 

Campus Development & Web-based Marketing Manager Nathan Laning ’06 helped plan this third year of the Trinity tailgate and is happy with the way the event fosters community.

“This event allows for many different ‘Trinity groups’ to interact – students, parents, alumni, staff, and faculty – in an event off campus,” said Laning. “In the stadium, everyone sits in the same section, so they can talk and cheer on the Fire together.”

Sophomore Krista Fopma of Sully, Iowa, appreciated the College offering the event to students. “Trinity does a good job of taking full advantage of the opportunities around us in the city and suburbs, and provides them for a reasonable price for college kids.”

On Friday, September 27, the Grand Lobby hummed with the sound of happy students and Trinity community members mingling over lemonade at Trinity’s annual Black and White Dress-up Night of Jazz. The two-toned crowd of students and neighbors took pictures, reveling in the chance to dress up. By 7:30 everyone settled into the auditorium seats, prepared for two great jazz music performances. 

Trinity’s Jazz Band took the stage first, filling the air with a variety of jazz music from their repertoire. Freshman emcee Karyn Jones of Florissant, Missouri, said, “I’m usually a soul fan, but I really enjoyed branching out and experiencing a new genre.”

Freshmen Ben Hoekstra of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, also joined Jones as an emcee for the evening.

Following the Jazz Band’s performance, award-winning performer Dee Alexander took the stage, accompanied by her cellist, pianist, and drummer. Her vocal skills were impeccable, and she never stopped having fun with her music or with the audience. After one outstanding number, she announced that she had improvised the entire song, demonstrating the flexible nature of the jazz genre.

Alexander, who invited student vocalists to talk with her after the show, inspired many students.

Jones said, “I heard Dee’s warm-ups before the concert, and it was very different from the actual performance. She comes alive in front of an audience, improvising and creating as she goes. I bought her album after the concert because she opened my eyes to a new form of music.”

In 2008 and 2010, Alexander was awarded Jazz Entertainer of the Year from the Chicago Music Awards. In 2011, she was celebrated by the NAACP for her achievements in the arts. This year was Alexander’s second performance at Trinity’s jazz event; she performed here for the first time in 2011.

New Freshmen on Campus and in Chicago

The first blessing was an increase in the number of incoming freshmen at 202, an eight percent increase over last year.

Find out what other Trinity students already know.

That increase included 11 students from Chicago neighborhoods who are taking courses at the College’s new Austin site. Another reason for celebration! Through a partnership with By The Hand Club for Kids, which provides faith-based, after-school programs for children in under-resourced neighborhoods, Trinity launched the cohort style, two-year program that enrolls students who were once served through the By The Hand program and similar programs.

Growing Grad Studies

In addition, the graduate studies program in counseling psychology is experiencing excellent growth. To accommodate the increasing number of students, cohorts have been added for spring 2013 and fall 2014.

We are grateful for the rapid expansion of the counseling psychology program and the opportunity to extend Trinity’s educational mission into the area of graduate education,” said program director Dr. Michael DeVries ’74.

Interested in Trinity graduate studies programs in counseling psychology and special education? Find out more!